Until We Meet Again
by EternalRandomChick
Summary: Rose is struggling to continue living, even though she promised Jack she wouldn't give up. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death.
1. Chapter 1: Promises

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose, and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Rose's POV_

"Jack! There's a boat, Jack!" I sobbed. I was becoming desperate now. I had been calling to him for a while, yet he still remained unresponsive. "Jack!" As I watched the lifeboat move farther and farther away and heard the officers' voices grow fainter, I had to force myself to accept the horrible truth: Jack was gone, having frozen to death so that I wouldn't. I wanted to stay there and die with him, but that was something I couldn't do. His dying wish had been that I survive. "Promise me." He had said. "And never let go of that promise." I had done as he had asked me, so I had to do everything I could to survive, even though the only one who held my heart had perished. "Come back!" I tried to call to the men in the disappearing lifeboat, but they were too far away and my voice was too hoarse. I tried to make my voice louder, but the best I could do was a loud whisper. I didn't want to do it, but I knew I had to.

I unclamped Jack's frozen hand from mine. "I'll never let go. I promise." I whispered, partly to remind myself of that promise, and partly in the hopes that he would be reassured that I would keep my promise, in case he was able to hear me from beyond the grave. And then I released his hand and watched, sobbing, as his lifeless body drifted to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean until he had sunk out of sight. I remained on the door for a while longer, sobbing. I thought I heard someone whisper something to me, but there was no one alive near me, so I dismissed as just the breeze. I eased myself back into the water and managed to swim to the officer on the floating deck chair. He had died a while ago, while Jack was still managing to cling to life. Grabbing the whistle from around his neck, I began to blow. This was far more effective than my voice, and soon the lifeboat came back and the officers fished me out of the water.

_Jack's POV_

I was dead. I knew it. I stood, immaterial, on the door next to Rose as she sobbed as the realization that I was dead hit her. If I was still alive, I would have died again knowing the heartbreak I had caused her. But I didn't regret sacrificing myself. I hadn't given a thought to my own safety, but I had been willing to pay any price if it meant that Rose wouldn't be a victim of this horrible night, and if my own life was that price, then so be it. I heard Rose whisper "I'll never let go. I promise," and I smiled sadly as she let go of my body. She was strong, stronger than even she herself thought. I knew that I couldn't stay here for much longer, but I had seen what I needed to see. I knew that Rose would find a way to survive.

"We'll meet again." I whispered to her. For a second I thought she heard me, and then she rolled off the door into the water. By now, the pull of the afterlife was too strong for me to resist and I gave in. Before I departed, I heard a whistle blowing and I smiled to myself. The men in the lifeboat would definitely go back when they heard _that_.


	2. Chapter 2: Carpathia

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Rose_

On _Carpathia_, I lived as though I was in a dream. Cal came looking for me once, but I didn't reveal myself to him. His petty jealousy had been the cause of Jack's death. How could I reveal that I had survived to a jerk such as that, even if he was my former fiancé. I never saw him after that; he must have assumed that I went down with the ship, since he didn't find me in steerage, which was where I was hiding. A few days after he came looking for me, _Carpathia_ docked in New York City. I looked up at the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom for the immigrants who had survived, and also a symbol of freedom for me. I had been a caged soul, doomed to be trapped forever by my society. Then everything had changed for the short time I knew Jack. He had seen me, seen directly to my soul, and had known exactly what I was like, exactly how different I was from other women of first-class. He had loved me for that, and he had set me free.

"Can I take your name, please, love?" An officer on the ship came up to me and gently asked me this, cutting into my thoughts.

I looked at him. "Dawson." I told him, taking on Jack's surname as my own. "Rose Dawson." Had I not met Jack, I probably would have given my old name, Rose DeWitt Bukater – no. Had I not met Jack, I would be dead now. When we first met, I, in a fit of despair and frustration at how my mother, Ruth, was planning my life for me, was hanging off the railing of the stern of the _Titanic_, threatening to let go and fall towards the sea if Jack came any closer. He had talked me out of it, making me realize that if I let go, I would be making a mistake. He had held out his hand, and I took it, but as I started to climb back over the railing, my foot had caught in my dress and I had slipped. Only Jack's firm grip on my hand kept me from plummeting to my death. After a few very frightening moments of dangling over the ship, he had pulled me back onto the safety of the deck.

Jack truly had saved me, I thought. The next night, he brought me to a third-class party and taught me how to live again (third-class – much more lively than first-class). I smiled as I remembered Cora, the little girl whom he had danced with before dancing with me. I hadn't seen Cora at all on _Carpathia_, so I assume she died in the disaster. The next night after that was THE night, the night the tragedy occurred. Jack and I had stayed together until the end. I had even jumped back onto the ship from a lifeboat in order to stay with him. We had remained on the ship, riding the stern into the ocean after the _Titanic_ broke in two. We had found a door floating among the debris and it hadn't been claimed by any of the 1500 in the water yet. Jack had insisted I stay on it when we found out there was only room for one of us on it, willingly sacrificing himself.

I walked down the gangplank from _Carpathia_ onto Ellis Island alone. I had told Jack that I would get off the _Titanic_ with him, and I had promised myself that, since I couldn't get off with Jack, I wouldn't get off with anyone. But I had told him that before – well, before he had died. Mere seconds after I told him that, the lookout had spotted the iceberg. We had then been locked in a race for survival, made even more challenging by the fact that Cal had had Jack arrested for the theft of the Heart of the Ocean, a diamond necklace that Cal had given me, even though Jack had been completely innocent. I couldn't believe I was still wearing Cal's coat, but it was cold and raining and the only thing I had on other than the coat was the thin dress I had worn ever since the night of the sinking, so I was grateful for the coat. I put my hands into the pockets, thinking. My left hand brushed something. I looked down and drew the Heart of the Ocean out of my pocket. It had survived the whole ordeal? I decided that I would sell it later, after the pain of the memories had passed.


	3. Chapter 3: Arriving in the Afterlife

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose, and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Jack_

In my afterlife, I went back to the _Titanic_, and it was as though this grand ship had never sunk and I joined all those who had perished with the ship. I thought at first that it was strange, but then I knew that stranger things had happened to me. Heck, even the love Rose and I had shared was strange; society would never have accepted a first-class girl and a third-class guy to be together. But then again, Rose wasn't like those other snobby ladies. Neither had Molly, I remembered. She had loaned me a dinner jacket so that I would fit in among the first-class people the night after I saved Rose. But I didn't see Molly among the other people, so she must have survived. Neither did I see Rose, and that comforted me. The men in the lifeboat had pulled her from the water. I did see little Cora, though, and that was almost as killingly painful as leaving my Rose in the world of the living. Mr. Andrews then came up to me. He had always been nice. I knew that Rose had come to see him as a father figure. The last time I saw him, we were both alive. Rose and I were running through the ship after being shot at by Cal. Rose had asked him if he was going to try to save his own life, but the answer he gave her clearly said that he had no intention of doing so. He had given Rose his discarded life jacket, hoping that she would survive.

Now, he smiled at me. "Thank you for saving her," he said. I knew whom he meant by "her;" he meant Rose. "It must have been a difficult choice to make, to sacrifice yourself."

"I don't regret it." I told him. It was the truth. "I only hope that I'll see her again here once her promise is fulfilled." I had become worried that Rose would go to a different afterlife, since all here had died with the ship.

"She will join us, Jack," Mr. Andrews told me. "I know she will."

"Thank you, sir," I said. Then I went forward, up the Grand Staircase and waited by the clock. I smiled, remembering. After I had finished socializing with the members of first-class, I had wanted to show Rose the pleasures of third-class. I knew her mother would never let her go if I asked her aloud, so I had slipped her a note under the pretense of innocently kissing her hand. "Make it count. Meet me at the clock," was what the note had said. She and I had snuck down to third-class and there I truly found out what she was like. She was a spirit that longed to be free from the chains of her society. I hope that I broke those chains. I missed her so much. I hoped she was happy, wherever she was.


	4. Chapter 4: Continuing to Live

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose, and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Rose_

Years passed. Not a day went by when my every thought was a memory of Jack and not a night when I didn't see him in my dreams. I got a job as an actress, though only in small shows because I didn't want Cal finding me. I had promised Jack that I would marry, but I vowed that I would never marry Cal. I still hadn't sold the Heart of the Ocean. I had tried to, every year, but every time I tried, someone other than Jack popped into my head: Cal. I wanted to make it in life without his money. So I followed Jack's advice to live my life to the fullest and I lost myself in my work. It paid well, but I still felt there was the risk of Cal finding me and trying to take me back. At least, the risk was present until the stock market crash of 1929. A few weeks after the crash, I read in the newspaper that Caledon Hockley had put a pistol in his mouth and was now dead. While I felt sorry that someone had taken his own life, I felt relieved that there was no longer any danger of Cal finding me. During what became known as the Great Depression, I was one of the few lucky people who kept my job. The pay was significantly less, but I was grateful just to have work, I didn't care about money. Life was priceless and I tried to make each day count. One of my favorite pictures of mine had been taken only a few years ago. I was riding a horse right in the surf, one leg on each side of the horse. A roller coaster was in the background. Jack had said we would go ride horses like real cowboys and ride the roller coaster until we threw up. A tear came to my eye as I remembered. Why did memories seem comforting one day and then the next, they're like a knife straight to the heart?

Then World War II hit and the Depression was over. Everyone was building planes and other war machines. While I knew it was risky to get involved in war, I wanted to do what I could for my country. I joined the army as a reconnaissance pilot. I knew Jack would have appreciated that. I was a good pilot, surprisingly. I knew it was dangerous; after all, a wrong landing could leave my children without a mother. But I knew Sean Calvert, the man I had married, was a good man. If worst came to the worst, he could look after our children. My son, James, already had a girlfriend named Sarah, and both were preparing to graduate college. Watching my son grow up was one of the happiest experiences of my life. I also knew that, by watching them grow, I was keeping my promise to Jack. He had told me that I would go on, have children, watch them grow, and eventually die an old woman, warm in my bed. "Not here. Not this night. Not like this, do you understand me?" He had told me, fiercely.

I knew that since I survived the sinking of the _Titanic_, I could survive being a pilot in this war.


	5. Chapter 5: How Long?

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose, and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Jack_

I wondered how long I had waited. Maybe Rose had gone to a different afterlife, which was what I feared had happened. Or, if she were still alive, she would go to a different afterlife when she died. Would I ever see her again? Or was the three days we spent, the last three days I was alive, the only time we would ever know each other?

A couple of times, Mr. Andrews or somebody else who knew how much Rose meant to me would come up to me to try to reassure me that Rose would find me, but I never saw her. The musicians playing in the background did nothing to cheer me up, although Cora would come up from time to time and ask me to dance with her to a particularly lively song. I would always go with her, but I was would always remember dancing with Rose on the night that, I hoped, I had taught her how to live again. After my dance with Cora was finished, I went right back to the clock, hoping against hope that I would see her again soon.

But I never did. I began to fall into despair. I didn't want to hear words that people thought would reassure me. When I heard someone come up to me, I had turned to see who it was, in the hopes that it would be Rose, but it was always Mr. Andrews or Cora or somebody else trying to comfort me. I didn't want their sympathy. I wanted Rose. Only then would I truly be comforted. After a while, I stopped letting people know they had my attention when they came up. I wanted only one person with me.

"Where are you, Rose?" I asked silently.


	6. Chapter 6: Reliving the Memories

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose, and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Rose_

Well, I survived the war. My granddaughter, Lizzy, was now about twenty. She's been taking care of me ever since Sean died. I had moved in with James and Sarah, since Lizzy was only in high school when her grandfather died. When Lizzy moved out, I went with her. It had been eighty-four years since the disaster and I was a hundred years old. Why hadn't I died yet? Surely I had kept my promise, the one I made to Jack so many years ago. I knew that was what was keeping me alive, but why? All I wanted was to let go and join my true love in the afterlife.

One summer day, I was making pottery. Lizzy had the television going as she went about feeding her dogs. Suddenly, someone on television mentioned the _Titanic_. My curiosity was sparked and I got up.

"What is it, Nana?" Lizzy asked.

"Turn that up, dear." I requested. Lizzy did as I asked. An undersea explorer named Brock Lovett was talking. "Take a look at what we found just this morning," he was saying, showing the news station his find. "A piece of paper that's been underwater for eighty-four years and my team were able to preserve it intact." I barely heard the rest of what Lovett was saying. The piece of paper that Lovett and his men had found was the drawing that Jack had made of me, wearing only the Heart of the Ocean! I couldn't believe it!

Immediately, I contacted Lovett's crew. A friend of his, Bobby Buell, answered the phone and I asked to speak with Brock Lovett. A few minutes, later, Brock Lovett answered. At first, I didn't think he wanted to talk to me; he was just doing this to be polite. But when I asked if he had found the Heart of the Ocean, he said: "Alright, you have my attention, Rose. Can you tell us who the woman in the picture is?"

"Oh, yes." I agreed, cheerfully. "The woman in the picture is me."

Lovett, needless to say, was _very_ interested in my story. So Lizzy and I flew out to Lovett's ship, the _Keldysh_, and when he asked me if I wanted anything, I asked to see my drawing. He showed me the drawing and I remembered when Jack drew it. Lovett also showed me some of the things that he and his team had recovered from my staterooms, and I was again overcome by the memories, but these memories were good ones, they didn't hit me like a knife.

"Are you ready to go back to _Titanic_?" Lovett asked me. I said that I was.

Lewis Bodine gave an analysis of the sinking, but I had had quite a different experience on the sinking ship. There, above the wreck of the great ship, I finally told my story. I hadn't survived the _Titanic_ because I was one of the seven hundred who got into a lifeboat; I had gotten lucky a different way. I had met a man who loved me so much that he was willing to sacrifice everything in order that I would survive. This was the first time I had told anyone about Jack. All the memories came flooding back, but I told my entire story. When I reached the end – when I had told the officer my name was Rose Dawson – Lewis gently said: "We never found anything on Jack. There's no record of him at all."

"No, there wouldn't be, would there?" I agreed sadly. "And I've never spoken of him until now. Not to anyone. Not even your grandfather," I said to my granddaughter. Lizzy's face was streaked with tears; even she hadn't known what I went through when I was seventeen. "But now you know that there was a man named Jack Dawson. And that he saved me. In every way a person can be saved. I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory." And with that, my story was over and the submarine returned to the surface, leaving the _Titanic_ in her watery grave.

Upon our return to the surface, I went alone to the stern of the _Keldysh_ and began to climb over the railing, exactly as I had done years ago on the _Titanic_, on the day that I had met Jack. But this time, I wasn't attempting suicide. I hadn't really come all this way just to tell how I survived the disaster. I still had the Heart of the Ocean, and I had come to return it to the wreck. I looked at the diamond one last time, smiling as I remembered finding it in the pocket of the coat. With a small gasp, I let it drop and I watched it sink to the bottom, exactly as I had watched Jack's body disappear all those years ago.


	7. Chapter 7: Together Again

Until We Meet Again

Summary: Rose is struggling to live her life after Jack died. But she still promised and she knows that she must honor that promise, since it was Jack's dying wish. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Jack is continuously haunted by his memories of Rose, and he begins to doubt that Rose will join him upon her eventual death, even though he promised they would meet again before he departed for the afterlife.

_Jack_

Something had happened. I could tell. And it had to do with Rose. I knew because my heart, which had been still ever since I died, suddenly began to beat again. I didn't know why, but now I had hope that Rose was still alive and that someday soon, she _would_ come back to me. The musicians, who had been playing up until now, suddenly stopped, and everyone grew quiet, as if anticipating something. Was someone who hadn't died when we did joining us? I hoped against hope that it was Rose.

_Rose_

That night, I had the _Titanic_ on my mind as I went to bed. I felt a sudden pull that was too strong to even try to resist, so I followed it. As I traveled, I felt myself becoming younger and younger, until I was seventeen once again. The pull brought me to the watery grave of the _Titanic_, but as I went further into the wreck, it suddenly became pristine again, as grand as it had been before that fateful night. A steward opened the polished doors that led to the Grand Staircase, and I saw again those who had died with the ship. The orchestra members were the first to greet me. Little Cora waved as I passed and Mr. Andrews nodded, as if he was confirming something to himself. But my attention was drawn to the figure that stood at the top of the Grand Staircase, looking at the clock. Was that who I thought it was?

_Jack_

I had long since stopped turning every time I heard someone come up behind me. But, not ten seconds ago, I saw someone at the doors who had red hair. And not just any shade of red hair; _her_ shade of red hair. I had to know if I was hallucinating, if hallucinations are even possible in the afterlife. So I turned.

There, at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, coming towards me, was my Rose. I could hardly believe it! She was really here; we were finally together again! The time I had waited and my worry that she would go to a different afterlife faded away at the sight of her. I was so overcome with joy that I couldn't speak. I could only smile at her as I held out my hand.

_Rose_

Jack said nothing; indeed, he didn't need to say anything. The smile he gave me now said it all: He had been waiting so long to see me again, yet in a way, he was happy that he had to wait so long because the wait meant that I had honored the promise I had made to him on the night he died. I took his hand and he drew me close to him, just as he had done before we began our dance in third-class. I was about to kiss him, but then I stopped. I had seen him in my dreams every single night, ever since I had accepted the truth that he had died. What if this reunion right now was only another dream? It was a grander dream than I had ever had before, yes, but what if it was still only a dream which I would again have to wake from, come morning?

As soon as I paused, Jack seemed to understand the reason for my fear. Instantly, he kissed me, and that kiss drove all the doubts from my mind. How could I have even allowed myself to think this was a dream? It was too beautiful, too perfect, to be a mere illusion fabricated by my mind using my memories. I had died in my sleep and I had now rejoined my true love. Jack and I might not have been able to be together in life. But in death, we were together for eternity.


End file.
